Everybody wants a piece of National Small Business Week

It’s National Small Business Week — President Barack Obama just signed a proclamation making that official.

“Small businesses represent an ideal at the heart of our Nation's promise -- that with ingenuity and hard work, anyone can build a better life,” the president’s proclamation begins. “They are also the lifeblood of our economy, employing half of our country's workforce and creating nearly two out of every three new American jobs.”

Obama uses the rest of his proclamation to highlight what he’s done for small businesses: added 18 tax breaks (many of which are rarely used), supported record-high volumes of Small Business Administration lending, and reduced the time it takes for the federal government to pay small contractors.

The agency kicked off its celebration at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarter Monday. Twitter’s not exactly a small business, but its revenues were low enough that it benefited from relaxed regulatory requirements created by 2012’s Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act when it went public last year.

On Tuesday, the fun moves to Kansas City, where H&R Block founder Henry W. Bloch will recount how he grew his tax preparation firm into a giant enterprise. Then it’s on to Boston on Wednesday, where high-tech business leaders will discuss innovation at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center.

SBA’s big week will end back in Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will host a Thursday evening reception featuring Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen. Papa John’s founder and CEO John Schnatter also will speak at this event, which is noteworthy since Schnatter made headlines in 2012 by complaining that the cost of complying with the Affordable Care Act will force him to raise pizza prices.

On Friday the SBA will hand out a bunch of awards to users of its programs and hear from Samuel Adams founder Jim Koch.

The SBA also is celebrating something old — the 50th anniversary of SCORE, whose volunteers have provided business counseling and mentoring to 10 million small business owners since 1964. And it’s celebrating something new — launching a $2.5 million grant competition for “growth accelerators” that foster entrepreneurship. It’s particular looking for accelerators in the middle of the U.S., since the East Coast and West Coast already are well served by such organizations. The SBA also wants more accelerators serving women-owned startups and manufacturing.

Private-sector organizations representing small businesses are getting in on National Small Business Week as well. The Republican-oriented National Federation of Independent Business is offering online information sessions on various topics each day this week and the Democratic-oriented Small Business Majority is presenting webinars as well.

So if you’re looking for information about small businesses, this is the week to find it.

But one organization seems to think the focus of the week is a bit skewed. We shouldn’t be focused on what the government is doing for small business, we should be focused on what the government is doing to small business, contends the Job Creators Network, a Dallas-based organization founded by business executives.

“America's small business owners are under siege like never before," said Alfred Ortiz, president of the organization. "From the new health care law to thousands of pages of regulations to onerous business taxes, Washington does far more to hurt small business and damage the economy every single day they can possibly make up for in just one week.

"This year, let's celebrate National Small Business Week with action, not just words. Let's get government out of the way of the men and women who are eager to get our economy working again."